1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, method and media drive for selectively encrypting a data packet.
2. Background Art
Encryption of a data packet is generally performed using an encryption key. A data packet that has been encrypted using a particular encryption key is unintelligible until the data packet is subsequently decrypted using the particular encryption key. Accordingly, it is important that the encryption key used to encrypt the data packet be known at the time of decryption. If the encryption key used to encrypt the data packet is not known at the time of decryption, the strength of the encryption algorithm will result, in effect, in the inability to recover the encrypted data.
The encryption key is generally assigned (i.e., generated, identified, selected, etc.) for use during encryption and is then generally transmitted to the encryption engine where it may be stored locally for subsequent encryption of data packets. If the encryption key is corrupted at any point prior to the encryption of a particular data packet, the encryption key used to generate the resulting cipher text (i.e., corresponding encrypted data packet) will be unknown since the corrupted value will not match the original assigned value. Since the encryption key used to encrypt the particular data packet will not be determinable at the time of decryption, the strength of the encryption algorithm will result in an effective loss (i.e., unrecoverability) of the encrypted data.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to have a system, method and/or media drive for selectively encrypting a data packet. Such a system, method and/or media drive may, among other benefits, reduce data loss by verifying the validity of an encryption key prior to the encryption of a particular data packet.